Jasmine Seamarks has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2017 Deaflympics in Turkey.

The City of Cambridge swimmer will be taking part in backstroke and freestyle events at the competition in Samsun next July.

But that is only as long as she can find the funding she needs to be able to compete in the Games, which are recognised by the International Olympic Committee and have been running since 1924.

So the 16-year-old Long Road Sixth Form College student has linked up with three other swimmers from East Anglia – Oliver Kenny, Ciara Tappenden and Matthew Oaten – to jointly raise the £12,000 needed to allow them to participate.

Seamarks’ father Nigel said unlike with Olympic and Paralympic disciplines, there was no funding available for Deaflympics sports and athletes.

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He said: “It’s quite a difficult one because when there’s so much money in sport and everybody is up in happiness at the National Lottery giving it out, there are a lot of people who get no money.

“The Deaflympics are recognised by the IOC, but they’re not funded and Deaflympics GB needs just under £1million during a (Deaflympics) cycle.

“Every time you get picked for GB it costs £2,500, so it’s just relentless.

“She went to Russia in 2014 (for the European Deaf Swimming Championships) and America in 2015 (for the World Deaf Swimming Championships) and it’s just people start to feel the strain because you can’t keep asking the same people.

“The biggest problem with the Deaflympics is that no-one has ever heard of them because it gets no publicity.”

At last year’s worlds, the Waterbeach-based swimmer was sixth in the 100m backstroke and seventh in the 200m backstroke and 400m individual medley as well as helping set a British record in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay.

Jasmine Seamarks, who began swimming with Bottisham Swimming Club at the age of nine before moving to City of Cambridge, won the prestigious Roy Burrell Award in March as a result of her efforts.

Nigel Seamarks said he hoped his daughter and her international team-mates would be successful in their bid to raise funds to go to the Deaflympics.